Lying on CVs increases time, cost of filling jobs

As the skills shortage continues to bite, recruitment companies are coming across an increasing problem of job candidates lying on their CVs.

This makes it difficult for recruiters to truly vouch for their candidates – a situation that spells potential bad times for both recruiters and employers, says Karen Geldenhuys, MD of Abacus Recruitment.“We are spending an inordinate amount of time trying to double-check and verify the veracity of CVs,” says Geldenhuys. “These days it is also not just a case of checking up on qualifications stated on CVs, we are also having to do extensive credit checks with credit bureaus due to the increasing occurrence of dishonesty among applicants."This is naturally making it difficult for us to operate speedily and fill vacancies that some of our clients need filling – especially the urgent vacancies, of which there are a growing number due to the skills shortage.”Geldenhuys says that, until fairly recently, only a handful of job seekers were guilty of lying in their CVs. But now 10% – or more – of CVs are “not worth the paper they are written on”.“It is not a case of just being inventive with the way the CVs are written. In many cases, it is simply blatant lying," she says.Geldenhuys says this situation – and the fact that job seekers are prone to being “inventive” with their CVs – prolongs the recruitment process.“There is a time and a cost factor involved here,” she said.